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Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2003

Nguyen Vu Binh, 35, was charged with gathering anti-government information and documents for "reactionary organizations" in exile to help them oppose the government, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

During the half-day trial at the People's Court in Hanoi, Binh acknowledged he had contacts with foreign organizations but maintained he did nothing wrong, he said.

The judge ruled his actions constituted espionage, he added.

Binh was arrested in September 2002 for writing an article that circulated on the Internet criticizing a border agreement between Vietnam and China. A month earlier, he joined 20 others in signing a petition to government leaders demanding legal reforms to protect human rights and to establish an independent anti-corruption body. That same year, he also submitted testimony to the U.S. Congress criticizing Vietnam's human rights record.

Binh left his job at Tap Chi Cong San (Journal of Communism) in 2001, after applying to form an independent opposition party. The Communist Party, Vietnam's only political party, strictly forbids any calls for a multiparty system.

In Washington, State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said the United States strongly condemned the sentence. He called on Vietnam to immediately release Binh and others imprisoned for peacefully expressing their views.

Ereli said Binh might have been targeted because of his congressional testimony.

London-based Amnesty International and New York-based Human Rights Watch issued a joint statement Tuesday calling on the world to denounce the trial and push for Binh's freedom.

"Nguyen Vu Binh faces a summary trial and hefty jail term for speaking out against abuse," said Rory Mungoven, global advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. "The U.S. Congress, which heard testimony from Binh last year, has a responsibility now to protest his case."

Dozens of police and security guards, some dressed in plain clothes, stood outside the courthouse, blocking anyone from standing on the sidewalk. Across the street, police harassed Binh's family members by shouting through bullhorns and blowing whistles in their faces when they tried to speak to foreign journalists and diplomats from several embassies, who also were denied access to the trial.

"If it's an open and fair trial, the defendant's relatives should be allowed into the courtroom so they could see what crimes he committed, but his parents and siblings were not allowed inside," said Binh's older sister, Nguyen Thi Phong. "Is it an open and fair trial?"

She said Binh has been jailed for more than a year, but no one in the family has been allowed to visit him. Only his wife was allowed inside the courthouse.

International rights groups, as well as the U.S. State Department, have regularly criticized Vietnam for its repressive treatment of religious and political dissidents. Hanoi maintains that only lawbreakers are punished.

© 2003 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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